The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an intergovernmental organisation with headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana. Its 15 member-states are: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, the Republic of South Africa (RSA), Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In 2012, the total population of these 15 SADC countries was approximately 284 million, representing 27.5 per cent of Africa’s total population (SADC Annual Report, 2014).
One of the oldest development communities in the world, SADC’s main purpose is to advance socio-economic cooperation and integration, and foster political cooperation and security among its southern African member states.
SADC’s predecessor, the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), was established on April 1, 1980, in Lusaka, Zambia, with nine member states. SADCC was later transformed into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in 1992, and by 2000, its membership had grown to 15.
A prominent feature of SADC is its focus on the rapid promotion and development of trade among its member states. By 2008, the bloc had introduced a free trade area whose objectives were to further liberalise intra-regional trade in goods and services, ensure efficient production, contribute towards climate improvement for domestic, cross-border and foreign investment, and enhance economic development, diversification, and industrialisation of the region.
A plan is in place to create a free trade zone for Africa by 2018 that will be called the Africa Free Trade Zone (AFTZ), and would move SADC, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the East African Community (EAC) towards full integration. The objectives of this regional bloc are to expand domestic production and business opportunities, to increase intraregional imports and exports, to gain access to competitive inputs and consumer goods, to increase employment opportunities, to have more foreign direct investments and joint ventures, and to create regional value chains (RISDP, 2001).
SADC’s vision maintains that its regional community needs to foster a society with a shared future that will ensure collective economic growth, improved living standards, quality of life, social justice, peace, and security for its citizens. This vision also promotes regionally-integrated education systems in terms of access, equity, relevance, and quality of education, which is the framework upon which SADC-PET is anchored (SADC-PET, 1997).
This movement towards large-scale industrialisation and economic expansion creates a critical need for capacity-building. Education and training thus becomes an integral sector whose performance will directly affect, and indeed determine, the success of the proposed AFTZ in general, and of SADC in particular. Specifically, the required education and training for AFTZ presents a challenge that must be addressed by implementing a regional collaboration towards directed capacity-building.
Mission, Vision, Principles, and Main Agenda of SADC
The Southern African Development Community was initially established as a development coordinating conference (SADCC) in 1980 and later transformed into a development community in 1992. It is an intergovernmental organisation whose goals are to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socioeconomic development through efficient, productive systems, to deepen cooperation and integration, to advocate good governance, and durable peace and security among all 15 southern African member-states (Document adopted on the Declaration Towards the Southern African Development Community Conference, 1992).
The 1998 Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) is underpinned by SADC’s vision, which charts the direction for the region’s development. The declaration Towards the Southern African Development Community, adopted in Windhoek, Namibia, on August 17, 1992, by heads of state and government of southern African states, calls upon all countries and people of southern Africa to develop a vision of a shared future.
• The SADC vision is to build a region in which a high degree of harmonisation and rationalisation would enable the pooling of resources to achieve collective self-reliance in order to improve the living standards of its citizens. It is one of a common future – one within a regional community that will ensure economic wellbeing. It is a vision for the improvement of living standards and quality of life, freedom and social justice, and peace and security for the people of southern Africa.
• The SADC mission statement promotes sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient and productive systems, deeper cooperation and integration, good governance, and sustained peace and security. Ultimately, the mission aims for the region to emerge as a competitive and effective player in international relations and a global economy (SADC-PET, 1997).
• The SADC Common Agenda, which summarises the key strategies and policies of the institution, originates in Article 5 of the 1992 SADC Treaty, and is linked directly to its objectives. Consequently, the SADC institutional structure is consistent with the SADC Common Agenda and Strategic Priorities that it encapsulates.